The 2022/2023 Premier League season is now into its seventeenth game week, and the entertainment continues to be relentless and thoroughly enjoyable.

As a result, we will be breaking down each round of fixtures by picking out 3 of the biggest talking points, covering the biggest results, goals and general talking points from the week. We then will round off by picking our player of the week and game of the week based on what we saw in that round of games.

Let us know over on Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) if you have seen anything in a game that you think we should be talking about, or have anything to share from what you’ve seen at a game that week. Any funny stories, tactical analysis or general comments will be featured.

We’re Back

After over 1 whole month without club football, we are back this week with the return of Premier League action, and despite having a little taster post World Cup with some Carabao cup football games, it’s officially back on track for the second half of the league season with plenty still to play for.

Making a strong return on boxing day, we had some big wins and moments, and actually several sides picking up where they left off, despite the prolonged break in games.

As a result of the return to Premier League action, we will be continuing with our weekly round ups, so do keep your eyes peeled for any exciting moments or big stories you’d like us to discuss.

Some Things Never Change

Despite the extended break, normal service resumed in the most part, as Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Brighton and Newcastle United all picked up comfortable wins, to maintain their strong start to the season thus far. Meanwhile, Everton continued to struggle, as did Leicester, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth and most similar Tottenham made a meal of their game to come away with a point.

Despite having a break where their players will have come back revitalised for the rest of the campaign this season, Tottenham went 2-0 down to an impressive Brentford, before they had to did in and grab 2 goals to claim a point. Whatever is happening at Tottenham, things don’t look quite right, and yet somehow they are still in strong contention for Champions League football.

No More Ronnie…

The main talking point aside from the World Cup itself during this break, was the discussion of ‘what’s next for Ronaldo?’. Well, from a Man United perspective, their return in a post-Ronaldo world couldn’t be going much better, with an easy Carabao Cup win over Burnley to get back up and running, before they went on to hammer Nottingham Forest 3-0 in this round of fixtures. With Marcus Rashford scoring and assisting, Eriksen and Casemiro providing the others, and Anthony Martial and Fred bagging goals, they clearly could have enough without their Portuguese forward up top, and we may be seeing a revitalised Rashford and Martial with the freedom and possibility to step up in the absence of Ronaldo.

It’s fair to say this conversation will surely head into January, with talks over who they could sign as a potential replacement for Ronaldo, but for now they’re doing just fine without him there. I’d call that 1-0 to Erik ten Hag (for now at least).

Matchday 17 Player of the Week: Martin Ødegaard Looking like the player many expected back in his early Real Madrid days, Ødegaard is truly stepping up for Arsenal this campaign. Setting up the equaliser and then the 3rd also, he is just a creative force in arsenal’s attack, and could well become as highly regarded as the likes of De Bruyne in years to come, especially if he continues like this for the remainder of this season.

Matchday 17 Game of the Week: Arsenal 3-1 West Ham Despite going in at half-time 1-0 down, Arsenal turned on their style (likely after a unique team talk from Arteta) and between the 53rd and 69th minute, they bagged 3 goals to turn the game on its head and claim what turned out to be a comfortable win. While the first half penalty conceded won’t go down well with Arteta and his high standards, the willingness to dig in and claim all 3 points may be one we look back at this summer.

Let us know over on Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) what you made of the seventeenth round of fixtures, and what you’re looking forward to in the next game week.